Screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna’s resume is bizarre. Start at the bottom ‐ Three to Tango, Laws of Attraction, some TV movie, The Devil Wears Prada, 27 Dresses, Morning Glory ‐ you see the pattern, right? But after penning generally mainstream romantic comedies since 1999, McKenna veered wildly off course in 2011. Her credits for that year? I Don’t Know How She Does It (horrible, offensive tripe) and We Bought a Zoo (charming, inoffensive family stuff directed by no less than Cameron Crowe). Now McKenna is reportedly set to go even further away from her bread and butter, as the scribe is apparently set to rewrite the script for the Will Smith and Jay-Z-produced remake of Annie.
Perhaps even McKenna bristled at last year’s New York Times profile that sold her as the go-to writer of “Cinderella stories for the Blackberry set of professional women.” (Oof.) McKenna will reportedly “draw on both the hit Broadway musical and the comic strips that first introduced the plucky orphan for the adaptation.” She’s certainly an accomplished adapter, as a number of her projects spawned from popular books, though McKenna has never penned a musical.
The project was announced last year, and though Smith’s daughter Willow Smith has not been attached to star, she is the obvious pick and, as Cinema Blend puts it, “ that seems to be the main reason behind developing it.” Jay-Z will also “reimagine” the classic music of the play, because duh. [The Wrap, via Cinema Blend]